Hapoel Jerusalem went to Ludwigsburg with one mission in mind which was to win and put themselves in the position to their group and get an automatic bye into the Basketball Champions League Round of 16, and that’s exactly what Aleksandar Dzikic’s team did.

The Reds downed Josh King’s German squad 87-81 in a hard fought battle that went all the downs to the wire as Jerusalem will now look to defeat Darussaka in Turkey next week to punch their ticket to round number two. Five players featured in double digits for Hapoel in a well balanced attack that moved their record to 4-1 to move into first place over Ludwigsburg who are now 3-2.

Zach Hankins once again was strong inside with 19 points, Speedy Smith added 15 points, Mareks Mejeris scored 13 points while Khadeen Carrington scored 11 points and Or Cornelius with a trio of triples finished the game with 10 points in the win. Jerusalem made sure to do better than 1/24 from deep as they had done the last time they played and chalked up nine triples in 21 tries, but only went 14/24 from the free throw line. Prentiss Hubb paces the hosts with 18 points and Isaiah Whitehead added 15 points in the loss.

Hapoel Tel Aviv got back on the winning track in EuroCup play with a 103-73 victory over winless Slask Wrocław to even up their record at 4-4. However, a cloud of uncertainty came over the Reds and their star guard J’Covan Brown who took a hit to the head and lost consciousness. All of the precautionary measures and tests were taken which all thankfully came out fine following the incident. Brown will be out for a number of days and will rejoin the team in the near future.

Danny Franco’s team scored early and often as Adam Ariel with a five 3-pointers ended the game with 17 points, Jordan McRae who was coming off of an injury added 15 points, JP Tokoto and Xavier Milford each had 13 points and piece while Tomer Ginat dropped 12 points in the win. Ivan Ramljak led the visitors with 14 points in the loss.

Bnei Herzliya surprised Rytas Vilnius 101-90 in Lithuania to keep themselves in contention of a spot in the Round of 16 Play In Playoff in BCL action. Oren Aharoni’s team raced out to a 53-35 lead at halftime but the hosts came storming back to cut the lead to 69-66 after thirty minutes of play. However, Herzliya made sure to stay in front for the balance of the game to take the double digit win. Maurice Kemp continued with his strong play and after starring against Maccabi Tel Aviv earlier in the week, the forward did it again with 33 points and 11 rebounds. Chris Babb and Stephen Thompson each had 16 points, while Sandy Cohen dropped 15 points and Quinton Hooker ended his night with a cool dozen in the victory. Marcus Foster paced the hosts with 25 points in the defeat.

Hapoel Haifa got the second round of the FIBA Europe Cup off to a fine start with a 81-71 win against Kyiv. The Carmel Reds were up 38-35 at halftime but blew the game open on the third quarter by outscoring the visitors 25-8 to take the win. Anthony Hickey checked in with a double double of 16 points and 10 assists, Jalen Jones added 15 points while Amir Simhon went 4/6 from downtown for 13 points to take the win. Troy Franklin led the Ukrainian team with 21 points in the loss.